The "get it done" league

One of my favourite sports quotes comes from Josh Donaldson, formerly of the Toronto Blue Jays, who, following a frustrating loss on May 16, 2015, said:

"This isn't the "try" league, this is the "get it done" league. And you know, eventually they're gonna find people who are going to get it done."

These are unsettling words, especially to anyone who isn't getting "it" (their job) done, but Mr. Donaldson was, I believe, correct.

In major league baseball, or the highest-level of any profession, if you aren't "getting it done" – i.e., if you aren't doing your job at a satisfactory level – you will likely be demoted to the minor leagues (or equivalent thereof), or even out of a job entirely, irrespective of how hard you were trying.

The "try" league refers to people who are not getting it done, but claim to be trying very hard (and perhaps they do try very hard!). I obviously can't claim to know exactly what Donaldson meant by this quote, but I think that his point was that the amount of effort you put into doing your job, or accomplishing a task of any kind, is irrelevant if you aren't succeeding. The only thing that matters is results, at least at the highest level of sports (and probably other professions as well). Saying you are trying hard when you are not producing the results expected of you can sound like an excuse.

Strangely enough, Donaldson's words are somewhat similar to something said by Yoda, in Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back:

"Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try."

As it turned out, both Josh and the Blue Jays did indeed get it done that year – Mr. Donaldson, perhaps channelling his inner Yoda, won the American League Most Valuable Player award, and his team came first in the American League East Division for the first time in twenty-two years.

Today's post will explore the relevance of this idea to composition, and more specifically:

• Does the idea of "get it done, or we'll find someone else to get it done for you!" apply to the world of professionalism composition? 

• Does it apply to compositional training?

• Does the effort we put into a task matter if we aren't getting it done?

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The answer to the first question, is, in a word, yes. If you are a professional composer and not getting it done – i.e., not finishing compositions by deadlines, or perhaps not finishing them at all, or meeting a deadline but not producing the kind of piece you were commissioned to write, or the kind of music that the movie needs, in the case of a film composer, you will not last long in the profession.

It's not a completely Draconian world out there – if you have built a good reputation by consistently delivering high-quality compositions on time for years, being a day or two late with a project will probably not derail your career. But if you are late multiple times, then much of the good reputation you spent years earning will likely erode, which will eventually lead to fewer opportunities, and eventually, no opportunities at all.

So, yes, professional composers do need to find a way to "get it done," no matter how challenging this may be, or what their personal struggles might be.

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If you are in the process of developing your compositional skills, however, different rules apply, at least to some extent. You are basically in the  "learning how to get it done" league, which is hopefully more forgiving, unless you find yourself in the kind of vicious and heartless music school depicted in Whiplash, the 2014 film about the relationship between an ambitious jazz drumming student and a sadistic and abusive instructor.

Luckily, most music instructors are nurturing and genuinely care about the musical development of their students, at least in my experience, although I have had a few notable exceptions as teachers along the way.

At our university, and at many others, students who are unable to accomplish tasks due to personal struggles of any kind can request accommodations to avoid academic penalties. Valid excuses do matter, and are taken into consideration. The same may be true in many other professional environments as well.

But, even in the training process for aspiring composers, there are aspects of the "get it done" league that apply, such as:

1. Finishing a composition.
2. Doing the above by a deadline.
3. Doing the above, and being satisfied that the composition is as good as you can make it in your current stage of development, and given your time constraints.
4. Doing the above, and making sure that all score details and other matters of score presentation are logical, musical, clear, and as unambiguous as possible; also, doing the same for parts.
5. Doing the above, and getting the score and parts to performers in plenty of time for them to learn it, assuming you want it to be performed in an upcoming concert. 
6. Doing the above, plus doing whatever it takes to address any concerns the performers (or commissioner) have, including modifying sections of the score if necessary. This is something I plan on writing a post about in the near future, by the way.

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At times I have taken an absurd amount of time – in some cases, weeks – working and reworking the ending of a composition. The objective is always the same – come up with an ending that works best for that particular piece – because I never want people to think, after hearing my composition, what the hell just happened there at the end? It was all going pretty well up to the last minute or so! Or, perhaps more importantly, I don't want to think such thoughts when I hear my own piece in a concert.

There is plenty of justification for taking the time necessary to "get it right," not just in the ending, but in every section of your composition (I guess, if you want to keep using sports slogans, we can call this the "get it right" league), but, most of the time, composers face the challenge of both finding a way to both get it done, and get it right by a deadline.

Sometimes, however, the "get it right" part may need to be slightly compromised in order to meet a deadline.

Put another way, we always want to get it right, but getting it right should never trump the objective of finishing by our deadline.

Why? There are many possible negative outcomes that may result if you "get it right" but miss your deadline, such as:

1. The performers may not play your piece. This may not seem very likely, especially if the performers are friends, but, not only can it happen, I have personally experienced this, and I know of others who have as well. And it can be devastating.
2. The performers may resent you, justifiably, for not giving them sufficient time to learn the piece well, which in turn can make them disinclined to ever play a piece of yours again.
3. Your reputation will probably take a hit, particularly if writing for professionals.
4. If it is a commission and you signed a contract to deliver the music by a certain date, you may not get paid (!).

Developing the habit of finishing by a deadline is, I would therefore suggest, essential for composers, even in the training stages of our development.

If you are experiencing angst because, in order to finish by a deadline, the ending or another section is not as good as you would like, I feel your pain, but perhaps you can take comfort in this thought:

You can make further changes to the composition after the first performance, but, if you miss your deadline, the piece may not get a first performance, at least not by the musicians originally scheduled to perform it.

If you can find/create an opportunity for a second performance (which itself can be a challenge), aim to make that version of the piece the one with which you are fully satisfied.

When faced with a deadline, try to channel your inner Josh Donaldson, your inner Yoda, or, if you prefer, your inner Queen Elsa from Frozen (!), and let it go. (Sorry ☺️; I will herewith stop the slogans and catch-phrases, I promise!).

If, in order to meet a deadline, you had to "let it go" before reaching a point of complete satisfaction with your composition, just remember that you can get it back after the premiere and revise it further, if you wish.

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Incidentally, I have no idea who first used the term "let it go" in a song, but a long time before 2013's Frozen, in 1980, John Lennon wrote I just had to let it go in a song called Watching the Wheels. The concept itself goes back millennia, and is associated with Buddhism, among other faith/philosophical traditions.

Henryk Górecki: Three Pieces in Old Style

Another Górecki piece (with scrolling score), quite different in character from the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Here's the write-up of this piece posted at the publisher's website:

Three Pieces in the Old Style were written in 1963, in answer to a friendly accusation on the part of Tadeusz Ochlewski, then director of PWM Edition, who stated that Górecki's works were lacking in melody. Work on the new composition lasted from 28 November to 23 December 1963, and its premiere took place on 30 April 1964 in Warsaw. 

This work was a sort of novelty - for here in the art of a young composer who had already openly declared himself as supporter of the avant-garde, there suddenly appeared three miniature pieces combined in one small cycle, characterized by a very strong reference to the style of Renaissance music. The composer himself mentioned years later that they had been an antidote for him, an attempt to go beyond the aesthetic of sonorism and post-serialism flourishing at the time. 

Written for string orchestra, this little work encompasses three segments, maintained in different tempi and differing in character. The outer movements of the cycle, reminiscent of lively dances, surround the nostalgic second piece. About this piece, Tadeusz Zieliński wrote in 1975: The purposefully simple, but at the same time tasteful dosage of purely sonorist values of string sound, variation and contrast in its density and dynamics, lead us to the very essence of Góreckis individual style. These pieces represent a modest (as it were, simplified, adapted to the archaic theme), but effective and charming sample of this style and the typical aesthetic-technical issues of their creator. 

Duration: 10 minutes